Recent years have seen drastic increases in the use of portable computing devices, such as smart phones and tablet computers. Today's consumers are utilizing such devices for a wide variety of different purposes, such as to access and search the Internet, purchase products and services, capture and/or send digital images, compose electronic mail (email) messages, make telephone calls and the like. One particular area of some attention, sometimes referred to as augmented reality, has been the ability to process image data captured by digital cameras often embedded in such devices in order to perform various actions based on the information in the image. For example, if the image contains an object that can be recognized as a product, the computing device may invoke an application to allow the user to purchase the product from an electronic commerce (e-commerce) provider. Similarly, if the image contains an object recognized as a place of business (e.g., restaurant, bar, etc.), the computing device may display visual elements to allow the user to invoke a map application to display directions to the place of business. Many other examples of such augmented reality image processing are possible and exist today.
In this context of augmented reality processing, it may be desirable for the computing device (e.g., mobile phone, tablet, etc.) to determine depth information associated with the object being captured by the camera of the computing device. For example, it may be useful for the device to know how far away the object is located from the computing device or from the user. However, because augmented reality image processing is conventionally performed using a single rear-facing digital camera, object depth information has not been readily available under most conditions.